God met Jacob at Bethel
Genesis 28:1-28:33
Key Verse 28:15
Good morning. In our life, there are some important moments; like Yukai met Dr. Daniel Lee last month, or the day Rommel and I greeted Than at the Philadelphia airport, and something else. But in our life, the most important moment is to encounter God personally. In today’s passage, Jacob was running away from his angry brother Esau who wanted to kill Jacob. In a certain place, later, Bethel, he slept. But in his dream, God revealed himself to Jacob and promised that he would be with him and watch over him and help him return to his father’s house safely. Jacob had his personal encounter with God for the first time. Through this message, let us learn about God who met Jacob at Bethel. I pray through this message, God may reveal himself to us that we can meet our own God too.
Part 1. Jacob spent the night (1-11)
Last week, through P. Jacob, we learned that Jacob had deceived his father by taking Esau’s blessing. This is like a younger brother cheating on his older brother and taking a CEO position in a big company. When Esau found out Jacob’s deceiving, he was so angry. He said to himself, ‘I will kill him when my father dies”. Jacob’s mother Rebekah was told what Esau had said. She was so worried about Jacob’s life. So, she requested her husband Isaac to send Jacob to her brother’s house, located in Haran (460 miles away from her house). Then, in verse 1, Isaac called Jacob and commanded him, “go at once to your uncle’s house, and get a wife for you”. Jacob did not expect this. He never left his loving home. But he had no choice but to escape from his brother’s threat. So, he obeyed his father and set out for Haran.
Look at verse 11. When he reached a certain place, later Jacob called Bethel, he stopped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones here and put it under his head and lay down to sleep. Think about Jacob’s life for a moment.
Jacob, all of sudden, was alone. Though in his house, he was second son of rich man, he had to sleep in open country. In his time, there was no hotel, no Airbnb, and no car. He must have been scared when he heard the sound of wild animals at night. No one could help him. outwardly he was heading to his uncle’s house to find a wife for him, but the real reason is he is fleeing from his brother. In a sense, he deserved this kind of suffering since he deceived his father and brother. Anyway, he was at the lowest point of his life. How fearful and worried he was about his life and his future. However, in this unlikely time and place, God prepared an amazing thing for him.
Part 2. God visited Jacob in his dream. (12-15)
Let’s read verse 12. “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Jacob had a dream. This dream was not a daydream. it was from God. In his dream, he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. What were the angels doing? They are working for God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven. Jacob did not know, but God was working in his life. Though you do not know, but God is working in you. He is working in Delaware campus ministry.
Then, in his dream, God spoke to him personally. Shall we read verse 13a? There above it[c] stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. God introduced himself “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac”. What does the God of Abraham mean? Abraham did not believe God at all. He used to worship idols. At age 75, he still had no son. But God had mercy upon him. God had a vision for him. so, God called him out of idol worshipping place and led him to a mission land Cannan. Even though he moved to Canaan, his faith was so weak. When there was a famine, he went down to Egypt to escape famine, but he was afraid that the people might kill him because of his beautiful wife. He told them that his wife is his sister. Then, the people came and took his wife. Also, even though God promised him to send a son, he could not patiently wait. He took one slave girl Hagar. Later when God told him, “This time next year his wife Sarah will have a son”, he laughed at himself. Nevertheless, God was patient with him. God kept challenging him and encouraging him. God helped him not to look at his situations but look up to the stars in the sky by faith. In the end, at his age 100, God gave him a son Isaac. God made him a father of all nations as well. God became the God of Abraham.
What about the God of Isaac? Isaac was not talkative. Mostly He was silent. One time, when there was a famine, he wanted to go down to Egypt. But God said to him, “do not go down to Egypt, but stay in the land where he is”. Even if it was not easy to obey God’s direction, but When he obeyed God, God blessed him to reap a crops 100 folds. Also, even though he knew God’s will was on his second son Jacob, but he favored his first son Esau. He wanted to give his blessing to his first son. Yet, God did not say anything to him. Instead, God used him ‘God’s will be done in Jacob’.
Now, God revealed himself to Jacob. He wants to be the God of Jacob too. Though humanly speaking, Jacob cheated his father and his brother to get God’s blessing. Because of this, he became a fugitive. He did not deserve God’s favor. Yet, God wanted to show him God’s mercy and grace. He wanted to be his God as he did to Abraham and Isaac, enduring with their weakness and shortcomings, but in the end, changing Jacob as a man of God.
This God wants to be our own God too. Though we are selfish, flesh, fearful of our life and our future, actually we are not better than Jacob at all, yet, he wants us to know who he is personally in our life. To some people, through dreams or visions, to others through the Bible, he comes to us first and wants to bless us to have personal encounter with him so that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob wants to be our own God, the God of Joshua, the God of Than, …
Then, what is the reason God wants to be God of Jacob? Let us look at verse 13b and 14. It says “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring”. God had a plan for Jacob. The plan is that God will give Jacob and his descendants the land on which he was lying. Also, his descendants will be like the dust of the earth. Most of all, all people on earth will be blessed through him and his offspring. As God’s plan, right now Jacob was a single, but later he had twelve sons. They became twelve tribes. Through them, the nation Israel was made. And in the end, our Lord Jesus came from the lien of Jacob.
Now let’s look at verse 15. “ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” God said to Jacob that I am with you. What a comforting and encouraging. Jacob thought he was alone. But God said Jacob, you are not alone. I am with you. Actually, God was with Jacob in the past too though Jacob did not recognize it. God also said he will watch over Jacob wherever he goes. Currently, he is traveling to Haran, 460 miles away from his house. On the way, anything bad could happen. What if Esau would chase after him to kill? What if Jacob met robbers on his journey? But God assured Jacob that he will watch over his journey and protect him from any harms. God also said to Jacob “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you”.
God assured he will never leave him until he has done what he has promised him. In Joshua 1, God’s servant Moses died. Joshua became a leader. But he was very afraid. Then, God appeared and said to him, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you do”. (Joshua 1:9) God did not leave Joshua until God gave Isarel the promised land.
Do you have any God’s promise personally in your life? As you know, when Franco gave up his music band career, he was so afraid of his future. But God promised him by Matthew 6:33, “seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, then all these things will be given to you as well”. As long as Franco seeks first God, God will not leave him and provide all he needs. In addition, God will accomplish what he has promised him.
This is the same for us. Philippians 1:6 says being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. In Jesus, God began a good work in your life and my life. He will not leave us until he has accomplished what he had promised in our life.
Part 3, Jacob made a vow to his God (16-22)
Look at verse 16. After Jacob met God in his dream, he could not sleep anymore. So, he awoke from his sleep right away. Then, what did he say? Let’s read verse 16 and 17. “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Jacob never imagined that God was in this place. He thought the place Bethel was a one-night passing-by place. He might think God was in his father’s household since his parents served God sincerely. But now he realized ‘God is here too’.
We may think like him. While you worship God, you may think God is here. But when you go out to the world, when you go to campus, do you feel God is there too? However, Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Wherever we gather together in his name, Jesus is there. God is there. Only the problem is we are spiritually blind that we do not see God’s presence.
As soon as Jacob realized God’s presence, he was afraid. Here afraid is not Jacob did something wrong that he was afraid of being punished. Rather, here afraid in Hebrew, fear in awe or fear in honor. When God appeared to Jacob, Jacob was overwhelmed with God’s presence. He began to have a fear of God. So, he confessed that this place is not just an ordinary place, but the house of God, the gate of heaven.
God is not just in the temple or church. even in the desert, if God is there, that place is the house of God. Even though we are a house church, meaning we worship God at my house, but if God is here, this place is a holy place, the house of God, and the gate of heaven.
Now let’s look at verse 18 -19. Once he realized God’s presence, what did he do? He got up early the next morning. As soon as the sun shone the light, he took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, Beth means house, El means God, so Bethel means the house of God. At Bethel, he began to worship God. He wanted to worship God. He could not wait. He did not wait. Even if no one was there, Jacob alone, he had only one stone, yet, at the place, he worshipped God. But that is not over yet.
Look at verse 20-22. Shall we read verse 20 – 22? “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD[f] will be my God 22 and[g] this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Jacob made a vow to God. God did not demand him to do it. Yet, he was so thankful that he volunteered to make a vow. What did he vow? He said “If God will be with me, if God will watch over me on this journey, If God will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, if I will return safely to my father’s household, that is God’s part. His vow is kind of selfish. Yet, God used this selfish vow to train Jacob to grow and became a man of God and later changed his name as Israel.
Then, in Jacob’s part, he said three things. First one is that the LORD will be my God. God is not just the God of his grandfather Abraham or his father Isaac. Now God would be his own God. The God of Jacob. It is his decision to treat God as his personal God. second one is that Jacob said the stone will be God’s house. In history, later, Bethel became a place where the ark of God existed, and the tabernacle remained until king Daid built the temple in Jerusalem. Whenever Jacob’s descendants, Israel had big issues, they came up to Bethel to inquire of God.
Third one is that Jacob said “all that you give me I will give you a tenth”. It is surprising that a tenth (or tithe) is already mentioned even before the law. In fact, in Genesis 18, when Abraham returned from his great victory defeating four allied armies with only 318 trained men, Melchizedek the king of Salem said to him, “Praise God who delivered your enemies in your hands”. He taught Abraham that it was God who gave him a victory. Then, out of thankfulness, Abraham gave him a tenth. So, the origin of a tenth does not from the law nor its duty rather it is our faith, our thankfulness that all that I have is from God. As God blesses our hands to work hard, study hard, make money, or even play music instruments, now out of thankfulness, we give our own God a tithe.
In conclusion, in today’s passage, God appeared to Jacob in most unlikely place and time. After that experience, Jacob’s life was totally changed. We don’t want to just learn about how God met Jacob. We want to meet our own God personally. We want God to be our own God, not the God of our parents, not the God of someone. Jeremiah 29:13 if you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,”. Let us pray earnestly that God may reveal himself to us through whatever ways, by dreams or visions or the words of God that we can meet our own God personally. Also, let us not just receive all good things from God. Instead, like Jacob, out of thankfulness, let us love him and give him a tithe.